H.I.V. causes AIDS. This is not a controversial claim but an established fact, based on more than 20 years of solid science. It is as certain as the descent of humans from apes and the falling of dropped objects to the ground.

So why reiterate the obvious? Because lately, a bizarre theory has gained ground  one that claims that H.I.V. is harmless, and that the antiretroviral drugs that curb the growth of the virus cause rather than treat AIDS. Such talk sounds to most of us like quackery, but the theory has emerged as a genuine menace to public health in the United States and, particularly, in South Africa.

The theory, which we call AIDS denialism, has gained such currency with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa that his administration is reluctant to expand access to antiretroviral drugs. Despite generous allocations from the country's Treasury and substantial assistance from foreign donors, only a quarter of those needing antiretrovirals receive them. This response is poor by the standards of middle-income countries, but it is especially troublesome in South Africa, which has more H.I.V.-positive people than any other country.

American AIDS denialists are partly to blame for South Africa's backsliding AIDS policy. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the health minister, has described antiretrovirals as poisons. She is supported in these views by Roberto Giraldo, a New York hospital technologist who says AIDS is caused by deficiencies in the diet, and who served on President Mbeki's AIDS advisory panel in 2000. The minister promotes nutritional alternatives like lemons, garlic and olive oil to treat H.I.V. infection. Several prominent South Africans have died of AIDS after opting to change their diets instead of taking antiretrovirals.

Another American AIDS denialist, David Rasnick, a regular letter-writer to South African newspapers, absurdly claims that H.I.V. cannot be transmitted between...

Statistical correlation is not cause and effect - ask the folks who have tried, unsuccessfully, to prove smoking causes lung cancer. Strong statistical correlation, but no proof.

Same with HIV and AIDS. If you are truly interested in an alternative theory, from a scientific viewpoint, check out this site: http://www.duesberg.com/

Just because the government funded research says AIDS = HIV + a disease doesn't make it so. Also, consider: AIDS does not spread as a contagious disease spreads. There are lots of questions that the government does not seem interested in answering, same as with DDT and asbestos.

Sorry - - I perused it quickly, but frankly after reading: "It is as certain as the descent of humans from apes....", it was tough to imagine that anything following could be taken seriously. That kind of vain, brazen arrogance presents a real stumbling block for me.

I certainly did not. Why would I bother reading an article by a biologist who makes such a basic error in the openning paragraph.

I am an economist. If I began an article by saying, drilling in AWAR would increase old prices with scientific certainty, it is as certain as an increase wages lower firm costs, I doubt anyone would read my entire article either.

If you make a basic error about your discipline and I am not talking about a typo, but a basic error like humans desecended from ape rather than humans and apes come from a common gene pool, then you have undermined your credibility. No one is going to take you seriously.

Statistical correlation is not cause and effect - ask the folks who have tried, unsuccessfully, to prove smoking causes lung cancer. Strong statistical correlation, but no proof.

I live in the real world. Life is not geometric or algebraic proofs. Look at the preponderance of clinical evidence in reducing the incidence and prevalence of the HIV/AIDS diagnosis, e.g. the reduction of mother to child transmission with antiretroviral drugs, the success in reducing promiscuous transmission, screening blood and blood products, etc.

25
posted on 06/03/2006 11:54:34 PM PDT
by neverdem
(May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)

Actually, I had read each of these papers long ago and found each of them misleading and esentially dishonest as to their titling.

I still have the papers. Do you recall any specific problems did you have with their reasoning?

As for the paper you posted, it's awfully questionable itself. For example, it's clear the authors have absolutely no knowledge of virology (kind of important if you're going to be discussing HIV). For example, at one point they say:

Despite its spectacular birthday, the HIV-AIDS hypothesis has remained entirely unproductive to this date: there is as yet no anti-HIV-AIDS vaccine, no effective prevention, and not a single AIDS patient has ever been cured.

Well, that's because:1) The HIV vaccine is difficult to develop; animal models are poor, the virus is highly mutagenic, and the receptor-binding portion actually conceals itself in the envelope.2) Antivirals have been shown to be effective at preventing AIDS from developing in HIV-positive individuals provided they do not continue to engage in high-risk behavior3) Because AIDS only develops after the supply of CD4+ T cells has been depleted it makes absolutely no sense to claim that an inability to cure AIDS somehow means that HIV isn't causing it - (and their 1 in 500 infected/depleted T cell argument is specious at best)

And when it comes down to it, the best predictor for the development of AIDS is STILL HIV infection, a point noticeably absent from this paper - even though they go into a great deal of detail analyzing and attempting to draw their conclusions from looking pretty much exclusively at sub-groups (such as HIV-positive non-drug users versus drug users, which is another fallacious point: how much more likely is it for a drug user to engage in risky behavior and have a compromised immune system that itself increases the odds of developing AIDS?)

...and if you're so sure, why not volunteer for one of the HIV vaccine trials? I mean, you won't get AIDS anyway, right?

It seems to me AIDs acts more like Treponema pallidum or Syphilis then any virus. There are differences such as it might be traveling through the body rather then spreading like most Germs or Bacteria do.

Well, the big fight over who should get credit for discovering the cause of AIDS was pathetic and science is not without scandals so it wouldn't suprise me if 50-60 years from now we look back and shake our heads over the HIV causes AIDS fraud. On the other hand it wouldn't suprise me if HIV does cause AIDS.

Sirs, perhaps there are those among you who believe you are descended from a ape. I suppose there may even be those among you who believe that I am descended from a ape. But I challenge the man to step forward who believes that General Robert E. Lee is descended from a ape.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.